Remembering A Trophy Win

All of the social medias are reminding me that today it is four years since “Terminal City,” my contribution to the Akashic anthology Vancouver Noir, won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Short Story.

So much about that is worth remembering. First of all, if you haven’t had the chance to read the Sam Wiebe-edited Vancouver Noir, run don’t walk. And though I love my own contribution to the book a lot, the whole thing is crammed full of brilliant short fiction in the crime genre. A lot of my talented and dear pals including, of course, Wiebe, but also Dietrich Kalteis, Sheena Kamal, Robin Spano, S.G. Wong, R.M. Greenaway, Carleigh Baker, Timothy Taylor, and others. 

If you want to read more about the anthology, you can do so here, and here.

Meanwhile, if Vancouver Noir gave you a taste for crime fiction that bends towards the dark side of the west coast, look for Wiebe’s stellar new novel, Sunset and Jericho, out now. Please buy it. It’s wonderful. I hope Sunset and Jericho is not the final word on Wiebe’s terrific Wakeland series but, in the way of these things, if you want to make sure it is not, buy the book now!

A sorta side note as well as a secret a lot of people know: my Vancouver Noir contribution was from the book that would be published a couple of years later as Endings. While I was writing that book, Sam had asked me to contribute something to the anthology he was at that time planning on editing. In one of those funny coincidences, at that exact moment I was writing a section of the book that was taking place in Vancouver (which turns out to be one of the few places actually named and accurately portrayed in Endings.)

I pulled about 6000 words out of the book, removed the connective tissue, honed it with Sam’s gently enthusiastic help and gave it a name I’d been hanging onto for a while, waiting for just the right project. In the bad old days, Vancouver got to be called Terminal City because it was the westernmost terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Hence. It was obviously a great name for a book or story set in Vancouver where things turn deadly for one of more characters. In the case of this story, the target in question is also terminal. But that’s another story. Or, actually, this one.

I’ve been peeking around, but “Terminal City” does not appear to be available online anywhere. If I’m ever able to circulate it, I’ll do so on my newsletter, so sign up any time. Also, and of course, it’s available in it’s original form in the wonderful anthology Vancouver Noir, available through better bookstores everywhere. ◊